Nell Gwyn - mistress of King Charles II "Pray good people be civil, I am the Protestant whore" was Nell Gwyn's cheeky retort to the masses pushing around her coach in the mistaken belief that it was that of the Duchess of Portsmouth, the Catholic Louise de Keroualle. 'Pretty, witty Nell' was perhaps the best known and remembered mistress of King Charles II. She was one of many (there were 13 in all during his lifetime), but she was the least 'greedy' of them all. When he lay dying he begged his heir, the Duke of York, "not to let poor Nellie starve". In her early teens, Nell Gwyn was engaged to sell oranges at the King's Theatre. Her natural wit and complete lack of self-consciousness caught the eye of the actor Charles Hart and others, and Dryden wrote plays to exploit her talents as a comic actress. She became Charles Hart's mistress, she called him Charles the First, and was then passed to Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, whom she dubbed Charles the Second, and later the King, calling him her Charles the Third.

Lady Castlemaine (Barbara Palmer) had been King Charles' mistress for many years when he became enamoured of Nell. The rivalry between Nell, Lady Castlemaine, Frances Stuart, Louise de Keroualle, Lucy Walters, Moll Davis and sundry others made the King's life difficult at times! Charles had 13 children by these 'ladies' and agreed to support the children he believed were his. He had doubts about some of Lady Castlemaine's children as he had caught her in a compromising position with John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough. Lady Castlemaine's last child, born 1672 was acknowledged to be Churchill's. Other ladies came and went - one Winifred Wells was a Maid of Honour. She was described as having the 'carriage of a goddess but the physiognomy of a dreamy sheep' ! Moll Davies, also an actress, had a child by the King. The child was known as Lady Mary Tudor. Moll was given a house in Suffolk Street and a ring worth £600 by the King before she fell from favour.

Nell was not greedy and grasping like her rivals, but did receive a house near Pall Mall and when she first knew the King, she asked for just £500 a year! King Charles gave her a pension of £4000 a year from rents in Ireland and later another £5000 a year out of the Secret Service Fund. Towards the end of 1669 Nell withdrew from the stage because she was pregnant. The child was a boy: however her other son, born two years later, died. Unlike Charles' other mistresses, Nell never received a title herself, but by using clever tactics she obtained a title for her son. "Come here you little bastard" she is reputed to have said to her small son in the Kings presence. The King was horrified, but as Nell asked, "what should she call him, was not bastard true?" The King immediately made him Duke of St. Albans! When the King died in 1685 Nell's creditors descended upon her - she never did starve, but was in grave danger of being sent to a Debtors prison.

She appealed to King James and to his credit, he settled her immediate debts and gave her a pension of £1500 a year. James asked in return that her son should become a Catholic but James was to be disappointed. Nell survived Charles by only two years and was only in her thirties when she died. She became a legend, the only royal mistress in English history to provoke popular affection. "She would not", she told a hopeful suitor in her colourful language that was part of her charm, "lay a dog where a deer laid"! A Family Take in 'Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King' : NPR Twitter Atlantic Monthly Press England's Restoration did more than simply restore a king to his throne. The return of Charles II in 1660 upended the cramped, rigidly controlled world of Oliver Cromwell and his Puritans. Theaters — long closed — reopened. Bright colors replaced sober black. Licentiousness triumphed over repression, and freethinking and cynicism over faith. Charles Beauclerk is a direct descendent of Charles II –- and one of history's most famous mistresses, Nell Gwyn.

Beauclerk has written the story of their 17-year affair, and how it came to be that their son became the duke of St. Albans, when Gwyn started out as a child of the streets and the daughter of a madame. In Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King, Beauclerk explains how Gwyn's upbringing — learning how to entertain and charm the men around her while serving rum to customers — helped her later woo the king. Read an Excerpt, from Chapter 1: Remarkably for one of her upbringing and lowly early station in life, we not only have an exact date of birth for Nell Gwyn, but a time too. We owe this piece of good fortune to the antiquarian and astrologer Elias Ashmole, who cast the horoscope bearing her name now preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. According to Ashmole, who may have derived his information from the lady herself, Nell Gwyn was born on Saturday, 2 February 1650, at six o'clock in the morning. The place of her birth is left blank; nor do we know when or at whose behest the birth chart was calculated.

Article continues after sponsorship Astrologers, two of whom have been her biographers, seem agreed that the chart drawn up by Ashmole gives a true portrait of Nell Gwyn, which makes it more than likely that the birth data supplied were accurate. Unsurprisingly, Venus was on the horizon at the moment of her birth, bestowing beauty and charm as well as a love of pleasure and material comforts, while Jupiter at the top of the chart (in the charismatic sign of Scorpio) gave her star quality as well as protection from on high, ensuring that few obstacles would keep her from the limelight she craved. The chart is almost bereft of the earthy element that so many naturally associate with Nell; instead, wit and spontaneity emerge as her chief strengths. Her birthday fell on the Celtic festival of Imbolc, which celebrated the return of the Sun. It was the feast day of the Celtic goddess Brigid, the light-bringer, whose temple at Kildare housed the eternal flame.

Under the Catholic Church, Brigid became St Brigit and Imbolc was transformed into the Feast of Candlemas, or the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at which candles are lit at midnight to attend the first stirrings of spring. Despite the associations with light implicit in her name and birthday, Nell Gwyn was born at one of the darkest hours in her nation's history. King Charles I had been executed almost exactly a year before, leaving the nation shocked and bewildered. The theatres were closed, the maypoles axed, public entertainments and holidays banned, dancing, singing and playing musical instruments proscribed. Even wrestling, leaping, running and 'unnecessary' walking (i.e., walking for pleasure) were denied the common people. Adultery was now a capital offence. The great iron giant of Puritanism thundered through the land, threatening to rip up the entire fabric of society. There was a strong feeling that the end of the world was approaching and that Christ would return to begin his 1,000-year reign on earth. The execution of the King had fuelled this millennarian fervour.

Messiahs, prophets and ranters of both sexes and every conceivable sect flooded into London from the countryside, as England suffered something in the nature of a nervous breakdown. Predictions were rife and could be used by the government to create a climate of opinion conducive to their aims, as with those that foretold the execution of the King as a necessary precondition for the rule of Christ. The London of Nell Gwyn's childhood was teeming with possessed souls. Women of course were the main target of the Puritans' blind projection of humankind's darker nature, and their status in the new regime was little better than that of children. Gone were the days of Shakespeare's witty heroines. The Puritans strove relentlessly for the light, their instincts bound like squirming devils and shoved into some dark corner of the soul. Instead, they looked outside themselves for the objects of their torment. Women were the obvious scapegoat, and those whose independent spirits did not allow them to submit either ran mad or became prostitutes. Indeed, it is no surprise that prostitution was more widespread under the Commonwealth than in Charles I's reign. Such are the fruits of demonization.

Poetic justice, however, was served one famous morning in St Paul's Cathedral. A Puritan divine was preaching on the Resurrection when a lady in the congregation suddenly stripped herself naked in her pew and advanced on him with cries of 'Welcome the Resurrection!' One can only hope, for the minister's sake, that the members of the congregation that rose up in response did not include his own! Merry England may have gone underground, but it was certainly not dead. Nothing perhaps gives a better flavour of the dreary theocracy that was Puritan England than the names with which devout Puritans saddled their children, names such as Abstinence, Forsaken, Tribulation, Ashes, Lamentation, Fear-not, Weep-not, Kill-sin and Flyfornication. How delightfully bright and simple 'Nell Gwyn' sounds beside a name like 'Perseverance Middleton'. No wonder the Encyclopaedia Britannica describes her as 'the living antithesis of Puritanism'. Art too was forced underground, as were all expressions of joy, beauty, and panache.

In the words of the poet, the lovers and the dancers were beaten into the clay.1 At the exact date of Nell Gwyn's birth, 2 February 1650, Cromwell was marching through rain-sodden Tipperary in the heat of his campaign of butchery in Ireland. The judgement of God was upon those 'barbarous wretches' and the privilege of wielding his righteous sword fell to the future Lord Protector of England. Cromwell's fierce star was in the ascendant. Meanwhile the nineteen-year-old King Charles II was in Jersey with his ragged ad hoc court, where he enjoyed sailing and long walks as distractions from the constant bickering of his followers and the sheer boredom of his permanently makeshift life. Money was scarce. The King himself ate sparingly; his clothes were conspicuously threadbare. Restoration seemed an impossible dream. Appropriately enough, the royal seal designed for the accession of King Charles in Jersey showed St George on the obverse, for the King in exile was to endure another ten years as the wandering knight, though the dragons that he would vanquish were those reared in the bowels of his own being.

Over the next decade he would learn to live as a man among men. Enduring frustrations and humiliations that would have broken others, he came to know himself as few monarchs ever have or ever could. The depth of Charles's self-transformation in exile has rarely been noted, possibly because he hugged this new man to himself in defiant secrecy. Having learnt to conceal himself for survival's sake, he later turned this necessity into an art. Of all the misfits of Puritan England that took to the roads, Charles Stuart had the furthest to go. It was as if fate had prescribed that the future King of England should know the sorrows and afflictions of ordinary men, for he could have no better tutors for the life of kingship that awaited him. Nothing tested him more ferociously than the forty days and nights after the Battle of Worcester. Charles was disguised as a woodsman and given the name 'Will Jones', his long black locks lopped with a pair of shears, his face smeared with soot. In addition to his coarse peasant shirt and breeches, he wore a greasy, grey steeple-crowned hat and shoes so ill-fitting that his feet bled horribly.

Some accounts say he carried a thorn-stick, others a billhook. If Nell Gwyn was ever baptized, it would most likely have been in the aftermath of Worcester, while her future lover was enduring his own second baptism, that of fire. This teenage vagabond King had already become a father before Nell Gwyn was born. He had sired a son upon his first great love, another beauty of Welsh ancestry, Lucy Walter, who was quickly shunted out of the way by exiled courtiers loyal to the King. The boy, who was later to become the Duke of Monmouth, was only prised from his mother in 1658. Later that year, the same year that Cromwell passed away, Lucy lost her life to syphilis. In a very real sense, Charles's experiences as an exile were an apprenticeship for his relationship with Nell Gwyn, for it was during his years of wandering that he came to identify with the underdog and the common man. Living off charity and in social limbo, despised by those in power, he knew what it was to wear dirty clothes and survive on one meal a day.

Through hardship he came to appreciate the ordinary pleasures of life with an almost ritualistic enjoyment. Copyright © 2005 by Charles Beauclerk. Reprinted with permission from Grove Atlantic, Inc. All rights reserved. Nell Gwyn, Mistress of King Charles II of England « The Freelance History Writer August 24, 2012 By Susan Abernethy in 17th Century , Early Modern History , Women's History Tags: Barbara Castlemaine , Charles Beauclerk , Charles Hart , Drury Lane , Duke of St. Albans , Hortense Mancini , King Charles II of England , Louise de Keroulle , Nell Gwyn , Oliver Cromwell , Restoration England , Theater Royal , Thomas Killigrew 19 Comments Nell Gwyn Because Nell had her horoscope cast, we happen to know exactly when she entered the world. She was born on February 2, 1650 at 6:00 AM, probably in Oxford. She was the younger daughter of Helena Smith and Captain Thomas Gwyn possibly of the Royalist Army. We don’t know if her parents ever married but we do know Captain Gwyn ended up in debtor’s prison in Oxford.

Helena moved back to London, taking her two daughters with her. Neither Rose nor Nell were educated and couldn’t even write their names. Helena was a drunk and ran a bawdy house near Coal Yard Alley in Covent Garden where her girls poured drinks for customers and may have even worked as child prostitutes. Nell also worked selling oysters and cinders, becoming a real life Cinderella. When the Monarchy was restored under King Charles II after the fall of Oliver Cromwell, one of the first things Charles did was reinstate live theater which had been banned under Cromwell. Charles established the Theater Royal in Drury Lane as his own company which was run by Thomas Killigrew. Charles II was the first King to actively attend the theater. As part of the enterprise, he licensed the theater to allow women to act women’s parts where they had been played by men before. This allowed women to have a genuine occupation as actresses. In 1662, Nell became the mistress of a man named Duncan. She soon tired of him but not before he got her a job selling oranges to the crowd at the theater in Drury Lane.

After about a year of selling oranges, Killigrew noticed Nell with her delightful and fun personality and ability to mock the actors. He introduced her to two actors in the company, John Lacy and Charles Hart, who immediately began to train her. She had an affair with Hart that was followed closely by the London population. By November 1664, Nell was acting and by the following April, she was a household name. King Charles II Most actresses of the time were dark eyed and dark haired. Nell was different because she had red hair and hazel eyes. She was very proud of her dainty feet and pretty ankles and never missed a chance to show them off. Diarist Samuel Pepys wrote volumes about Nell and it’s because of him we know so much about her. Nell didn’t care for serious, dramatic, or heroic roles. She really excelled at comedy, as if she was born to play it. She also loved to swear. In June of 1665, bubonic plague raged in London and the King’s court moved to Oxford. The theaters closed and the actresses and actors were called to Oxford.

For the next eighteen months, we don’t know Nell’s whereabouts or what she was doing but Thomas Killigrew was making extensive improvements to the theater in Drury Lane during the break. From September 2-6, 1666 the Great Fire of London demolished much of the city. The theater finally reopened in October and Nell was back on stage. In March of 1667, Charles was at the theater when Nell made her debut in the play “Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen”. Nell caught the eye of the Duke of Buckingham, who immediately came up with a scheme. He wanted to tempt the King with the fascinating Nell Gwyn in an effort to lure the King away from his dominating, long- time mistress, Barbara Castlemaine, Duchess of Cleveland. Buckingham appointed himself as Nell’s manager. The King asked for Nell but she demanded £500 for the trouble of becoming the King’s mistress. Charles refused to pay. But she did receive invitations to star in court performances. Soon Nell and Charles were getting on famously. She didn’t become his mistress right away, preferring to be friends first and continuing her acting career.

Eventually she relented but remained on stage for three more years. Nell established herself as the King’s “country mistress” and even taught him how to fish. By the spring of 1669, they would attend horse races at Newmarket which they did for the next 14 years. Charles commissioned Christopher Wren to build a large house for himself and a modest house for Nell in Newmarket. Two other retreats visited by Nell and the King were a house in Bagnigge, near Kings Cross and Windsor. On summer mornings they would swim in the Fleet River, a tributary of the Thames. In 1669, her acting career was beginning to wind down and during the summer, Nell saw more and more of the King. It was during this time she became pregnant with her first child by the King. The boy Charles was born on May 8, 1670. Nell Gwyn From the time of the fall of Barbara Castlemaine to the coming of Charles next demanding mistress Louise de Kéroulle in 1670, Nell was Charles main mistress. Louise had been in the employ of Charles’ beloved sister Minette.

When Minette died after the Secret Treaty of Dover had been signed between Charles and Louis XIV of France, Charles requested that Louise come to England. He had met her during the secret negotiations. Louise was to become Nell’s greatest rival for the King’s affections. She was something of a snob and was easily irritated with Nell. Nell took great delight in outwitting and humiliating Louise. Both women were unique and seemed to satisfy Charles in different ways. Four months after the birth of her first child, Nell was back on stage. This was highly unusual and attests to her need to maintain some independence for herself. She moved into a small rented house in Pall Mall. Even with the birth of a child, the King was not forthcoming with benevolent gifts. But she did want to be near Whitehall where the King was. At the same time he gave Barbara Castlemaine titles and huge sums of money. He also moved his wife, Catherine of Braganza into Somerset House. Now Louise and Nell could share the King to everyone’s entertainment. Nell’s return to the stage was successful. She loved to end the show by reciting the epilogue and then dancing a jig to the delight of the crowd.

Even though Nell threatened to keep acting, it appears she didn’t return after 1671. She retired at the age of 21 after a spectacular and dramatic career. Shortly thereafter, she moved into a splendid house at 79 Pall Mall. It was originally leasehold but Nell persuaded the King to give it to her outright a few years later. The house had a fair garden that was next to St James Park, close to Whitehall which could be seen in the distance. Thus she and the King could remain close. On Christmas Day 1671, Nell gave birth to her second son, James, named after the King’s brother. Nell’s home at 79 Pall Mall became her own salon. She wasn’t interested in politics so she invited those she liked and who amused her. She had music, skits, card playing and gambling, soirees and supper parties. After the parties, her guests would end up rambling in St. James Park. Her most magnificent possession was her bed. It was fashioned from Nell’s favorite metal and was designed by Nell herself. This four poster ornate bedstead included figures representing Nell and Charles was made of silver.

She was very proud of her petticoats and loved showing them off and she also liked to dress in men’s clothing. Nell would travel around town in her sedan or coach and people would wave and greet her. The people loved her and would often leave flowers at her door. She loved to attend the theater and keep up with her old friends. Her sons never lacked for anything. She was sometimes invited to attend state dinners. In the summer of 1673, Charles created Louise Duchess of Portsmouth. Nell was furious. She still had no title and her boys had nothing. In December 1675, Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, the last of Charles great mistresses arrived at court. She eclipsed Louise basically driving her from court. Hortense was Nell’s new rival for the King’s affections. Finally, in December 1676, Charles named Nell’s eldest son Baron Heddington and Earl of Burford. He gave the two boys the surname of Beauclerk. Nell’s son, Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St.

Albans In 1677, several attempts were made to lure Nell back to the theater but she refused. In January 1678, her house in Pall Mall was burgled and much of her silver stolen. In June 1678, she sent her son James to Paris for his education. In 1679, her mother died in a drowning accident followed by the first signs of a long deterioration of the King’s health with his first attack of an ague. Later in the fall, Nell fell from a horse in Newmarket. And at the age of 30, libels began to write of the loss of her looks. In May of 1680, Nell fell seriously ill, probably from syphilis or gonorrhea and Charles had another attack of ague. About a month later she learned of the death of her son James in Paris. Charles made a gift to her of Burford House near Windsor and she began remodeling. Nell Gwyn From 1681 until the King’s death, Nell led a quiet country life at Burford House and followed the King and the court as it traveled. Charles’ health was declining.

He suffered from venereal disease and the proscribed panacea at the time was treatment with mercury. In April 1681, he gave Nell the lease to Bestwood hunting lodge near Sherwood Forest. In January 1684, Charles made their son Charles Duke of St. Albans. Charles also had plans to make Nell Countess of Greenwich but it never happened. In January of 1685, Charles became fatally ill and died on Feb. 6. Nell was at a complete loss emotionally and financially. King James II, Charles brother, finally gave her and her son some income. Nell lived on quietly. She became ill, probably from the effects of venereal disease and suffered for 30 months before dying on November 14, 1687. The funeral took place on November 17 at St. Martins before a packed crowd. Nell always remained faithful to the King. He was her greatest friend.

Further reading: “Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King” by Charles Beauclerk, “King Charles II” by Lady Antonia Fraser Share this: Nell Gwynn - The King's Mistress - JoolzGuides Contact Us Nell Gwynn – The King’s Mistress Number 79, the former residence of Nell Gwynn, is the only building on Pall Mall not belonging to the crown. Pall Mall runs from St James Palace to Trafalgar Square and these days is mostly full of offices and clubs. In fact, it was down this street that the Suffragettes marched and smashed the windows of the gentlemen’s clubs when campaigning for votes for women. Some say that this was the final straw which got them their way! Hundreds of years earlier around 1675 King Charles II had a mistress called Nell Gwynn, who was a very popular actress at that time. When he offered to buy her a house he found that number 79 was available and suitably close to the palace, so he gave her a very long lease, enough to last her lifetime. Nell Gwynn however was very upset about this.

She said that she “had always conveyed free under the crown and always would”. Roughly translated as, unless she was given the freehold for the building she was leaving him. She wouldn’t accept the gift unless it was conveyed free to her by an act of parliament!. Ultimately the King gave in and when she died it passed to her son, the Duke of St Albans who sold it and it has changed hands ever since without returning to the crown. Meanwhile, Nell Gwynn has numerous pubs named after her and is buried in the Church of St Martins in the fields. Just nearby along The Mall and all over St James Park are original gas lamps which still need maintenance by the gas board. These weren’t the first to exist however, in 1807 an German called Albert Winsor set up along The Mall a line of hollow lamp posts. These were based on an idea by a Scot called William Murdoch. Coal was placed in an air tight tank and then heated. When the gas was released it could be ignited. So Winsor had a length of pipes connecting this tank with the lamp posts except the pressure was too much and the pipes kept bursting. So in the end he had to use gun barrels to connect them all together.

The flame couldn’t be directed like modern ones however, and they just appeared like a line of hug bunsen burners throwing flames into the air. The Pall Mall gazette wrote that people would go running to their beds in fear and that “Mr Winsor threw light along this royal road in a manner unprecedented and we are left wondering as much at his audacity as his ingenuity. So remarkably the system didn’t catch on and they had to wait a few years for something else. Please subscribe to my channel for more videos! Share this post 1000+ images about Nell Gwyn "Nellie", Actress & Royal Mistress of King Charles II on Pinterest | King charles, Mistress and Peter o'toole Forward Nell Gwynne, actress and mistress of King Charles II. She had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726), and James Beauclerk (1671–1680) The surname of her sons is pronounced 'Bo-Clare'. Charles was created Earl of Burford and later Duke of St. Albans.

See More Nell Gwyn portrait: Topless painting of Charles II's mistress to go on display | Daily Mail Online comments She was one of the first women to abandon her modesty to advance her career. And more than three centuries later, Nell Gwyn is turning heads again after researchers discovered this topless portrait that had been ‘lost’ for 50 years. The risqué painting of the actress, who became the mistress of King Charles II, will be exhibited from tomorrow. Exposed again: The restored version of the 1680 portrait of King Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn by Simon Verelst which shows the breasts which had been previously covered over THE TURBULENT LIFE AND TIMES OF KING CHARLES II King Charles II was born on May 29, 1630, the eldest surviving son of Charles I, who was executed at the end of the English Civil War. He was 12 when the Civil War began and two years later was appointed nominal commander-in-chief in western England. With the parliamentary victory he was forced into exile on the continent and was in the Netherlands when he learnt of his father's death.

It was not until 1660 that he was invited back to England to reclaim his throne. The early years of Charles's reign saw an appalling plague (1665) and the Great Fire in 1666 which led to the substantial rebuilding of the city of London. In 1677, Charles married his niece Mary to the Protestant William of Orange partly to re-establish his own Protestant credentials. He died on February 6, 1685, converting to Catholicism on his deathbed. While modern stars might strike racy poses for men’s magazines, Nell and her contemporaries stripped off for paintings to be exhibited in the King’s court. However, the result wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, with the artwork’s owners in the 19th century apparently painting clothes on to Nell to make her look more respectable. The portrait came to light in the 1940s when it was bought, probably for its frame, without the owner knowing who it depicted. Experts lost track of it in the 1960s and feared it was missing until they were contacted this year by a family who found it among their heirlooms.

Restored to its original condition, it is one of only a handful of surviving portraits of Nell, who was among the first actresses in Britain when she made her theatre debut in 1664, aged 14. She is thought to have sat for this revealing painting, by Simon Verelst, between 1680 and 1685. Dr Lucy Peltz from the National Portrait Gallery, where the painting will be on display until January, said: ‘Nell Gwyn was the forerunner of our modern celebrity culture. ‘This portrait reflects the fact that a female actress had to use her sexuality and charm to promote herself. ‘But Nell Gwyn had a lot going on. She well respected – a talented actress with creative flair. ‘She was also clearly very strategic, and it’s no coincidence that she ended up in the King’s bed. ‘Being an actress allowed a certain amount of social mobility for a woman.’ The 53 portraits also include a little known version of a portrait of Sarah Siddons, the 18th Century Welsh actress known for her tragic roles. The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in central London will run until January.

Naked ambition: Nell Gwyn is believed to be the nude woman in Sir Peter Lely's 17th century masterpiece, Portrait of a Young Lady and Child as Venus and Cupid Royal lover: King Charles II met his mistress at a play at Lincoln's Inn Fields and they had two sons together Nell Gwyn - Charles Beauclerk. - Daedalus Books Online Daedalus Item Code 38485 This item is not available. Description Beautiful, quick-witted, and sexually magnetic, Nell Gwyn remains one of England's great folk heroines. The story of her exceptional rise from a hard childhood on the streets of London to become a leading comic actress and then Charles II's most cherished mistress is a highly charged mix of lust, money, politics, and love. Her 17-year love affair with the pleasure-seeking "merry monarch" played out against the backdrop of the Restoration, the disasters of the Great Fire and the Great Plague, and the constant threat of revolution. Historian Charles Beauclerk, a direct descendant of Nell and Charles, tells her story "with obvious relish ...

[in] a biography that feels like a good long gossip."ï¿½Mail on Sunday (London) "As well as being a cracking good read, this is both a scholarly, sympathetic, mature and thought-provoking biography of our finest folk heroine and a well-rounded portrait of Restoration England."ï¿½Spectator (UK) You might also like: Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King: Amazon.it: Charles Beauclerk: Libri in altre lingue Libri in altre lingue Passa al retro Passa al fronte Ascolta Riproduzione in corso... In pausa Stai ascoltando un campione dell'edizione audio udibile. Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King (Inglese) Copertina rigida – 10 ott 2005 di Descrizione prodotto Book by Beauclerk Charles Non Ã¨ necessario possedere un dispositivo Kindle. Scarica una delle app Kindle gratuite per iniziare a leggere i libri Kindle sul tuo smartphone, tablet e computer. Apple Per scaricare una app gratuita, inserisci il numero di cellulare. oppure Non hai un Kindle?

Scopri Kindle , oppure scarica l'applicazione di lettura Kindle GRATUITA. Dettagli prodotto Editore: Atlantic Monthly Pr (10 ottobre 2005) Lingua: Inglese n.1135824 in Libri in altre lingue > Per lingua > Inglese Garanzia e recesso: Se vuoi restituire un prodotto entro 30 giorni dal ricevimento perchÃ© hai cambiato idea, consulta la nostra pagina d'aiuto sul Diritto di Recesso . Se hai ricevuto un prodotto difettoso o danneggiato consulta la nostra pagina d'aiuto sulla Garanzia Legale . Per informazioni specifiche sugli acquisti effettuati su Marketplace consulta… Maggiori informazioni la nostra pagina d'aiuto su Resi e rimborsi per articoli Marketplace . Desideri aggiornare le informazioni del prodotto o lasciare dei feedback sulle immagini ?

Consegne illimitate in 1 giorno Iscriviti ad Amazon Prime: consegne in 1 giorno senza costi aggiuntivi, accesso anticipato alle Offerte Lampo di Amazon.it e agli eventi di Amazon BuyVIP e spazio di archiviazione per le foto illimitato Non ci sono ancora recensioni di clienti su Amazon.it 5 stelle 5.0 su 5 stelle Superbly Written and Insightful 28 ottobre 2005 Di Amazon Customer - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina rigida Acquisto verificato Far more than a mere recitation of dry facts, Charles Beauclerk's biography of the magical life of Nell Gwyn displays rare insight into the human condition, which insights one soon realizes are acutely applicable to the here-and-now of politics, art, and the mysterious attachments of the heart. To history, Nell Gwyn was (pg.

297) "...the stuff of legend, the girl from the slums who had won the heart of a king." In the author's hands, however, this story of love reciprocated (for such it was) is more than romance- it shines a spotlight on the theater of politics and power which was the 17th century and still is today, in which nothing is as it seems to be, and fame provides a most convincing disguise for the truth. Beauclerk's evident erudition is worn lightly, and in this biography the richly comedic serves to illustrate the philosophical. Beautifully written, the author's style is both polished and relaxed, not unlike the later diaries of James Lees-Milne, with a limpid clarity of prose interspersed with surprising imagery, like his description of the Protestant rabble-rouser Titus Oates, (p. 279) "His mouth, we are told, was in the centre of his face, and he was built like an orc, with short bandy legs and long lifeless arms." On nearly every page one finds apt insights as, for example (p.

293) referring to the death of Nell's mother, "...like many alcoholics, old Madam Gwyn probably found a way of abandoning decent surroundings for a life of misery somewhere." The world of Charles Stuart and Nell Gwyn was a theatre, both metaphorically and literally, and whether on stage or at court everyone acted a part. In his biography of Nell, the plays of Dryden, Marvell, and others are neatly dissected by Charles Beauclerk to reveal unexpected depths of meaning. Nell was above all a comedienne, a star in her own right whose alliance with the saturnine, tricksy Charles Stuart made them the most successful double act of the 17th century. And there is, of course, the well-known account of Nell, whose coach being attacked by a mob mistaking her for the King's French (and Roman Catholic) mistress Louise de Keroualle, ordered her driver to stop, and flinging open the window (p.

307) "...cried out good-humouredly, 'Pray, good people, be civil, I am the PROTESTANT whore!' Immediately, the curses turned to cheers, caps were tossed in the air, and a path cleared for her coach. Waving and smiling, she passed on." And so, waving and smiling, Nell's brightly shining spirit has been well and truly awakened in this present biography. 12 di 13 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 5.0 su 5 stelle A Remarkable Life and a Vivid Age Come to Life 30 settembre 2005 Di Sally E. Mosher - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina rigida Acquisto verificato Nell Gwyn is by way of being an English folk heroine. Only with the 1660 "Restoration" of the British monarchy were women allowed on the stage. Indeed, all Shakespeare's heroines had been played by men. Emerging from a background of poverty and obscurity, the teenage Nell rose to stardom as the best comic actress of the London Restoration stage in the 1660's.

Beautiful, witty, unabashedly outspoken, Nell caught the eye and heart of the restored Stuart King, Charles II. In a time when class conscious snobbery extended even to the King's mistress, commoners were not welcome, and Nell's pointed humor and uninhibited ways stood in sharp contrast to the mannered, calculating world of the court. Then as now, people enjoyed gossip about notable figures, so Londoners came to feel strong affection for this untrammeled sprite. Beauclerk's brilliant depiction of the worlds of stage and politics, coupled with his penetrating analysis of character, bring Nell, Charles II, and their turbulent world to life. This is a touching love story, for Nell was the King's dear friend as well as his totally loyal lover throughout their seventeen years together, which ended only with his death in 1685. Beauclerk is a direct descendant of Nell and Charles's son, so a last chapter telling how the family has fared from then to the present adds and interesting coda to this lively tale.

0 di 1 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 5.0 su 5 stelle Superb Insights Into the 17th and 21st Centuries 14 luglio 2006 Di Amazon Customer - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina flessibile Acquisto verificato Far more than a mere recitation of dry facts, Charles Beauclerk's biography of the magical life of Nell Gwyn displays rare insight into the human condition, which insights one soon realises are acutely applicable to the here-and-now of politics, art, and the mysterious attachments of the heart. To history, Nell Gwyn was all to often misunderstoond to be merely (pg. 297) "...the stuff of legend, the girl from the slums who had won the heart of a king." In the author's hands, however, this story of love reciprocated (for such it was) is more than romance- it shines a spotlight on the theatre of politics and power which was the 17th century and still is today, in which nothing is as it seems to be, and fame provides a most convincing disguise for the truth.

Beauclerk's evident erudition is worn lightly, and in this biography the richly comedic serves to illustrate the philosophical. Beautifully written, the author's style is both polished and relaxed, not unlike the later diaries of James Lees-Milne, with a limpid clarity of prose interspersed with surprising imagery, like his description of the Protestant rabble-rouser Titus Oates, (p. 279) "His mouth, we are told, was in the centre of his face, and he was built like an orc, with short bandy legs and long lifeless arms." On nearly every page one finds apt insights as, for example (p. 293) referring to the death of Nell's mother, "...like many alcoholics, old Madam Gwyn probably found a way of abandoning decent surroundings for a life of misery somewhere." The world of Charles Stuart and Nell Gwyn was a theatre, both metaphorically and literally, and whether on stage or at court everyone acted a part. In his biography of Nell, the plays of Dryden, Marvell, and others are neatly dissected by Charles Beauclerk to reveal unexpected depths of meaning.

Nell was above all a comedienne, a star in her own right whose alliance with the saturnine, tricksy Charles Stuart made them the most successful double act of the 17th century. And there is, of course, the well-known account of Nell, whose coach being attacked by a mob mistaking her for the King's French (and Roman Catholic) mistress Louise de Keroualle, ordered her driver to stop, and flinging open the window (p. 307) "...cried out good-humouredly, 'Pray, good people, be civil, I am the PROTESTANT whore!' Immediately, the curses turned to cheers, caps were tossed in the air, and a path cleared for her coach. Waving and smiling, she passed on." And so, waving and smiling, Nell's brightly shining spirit has been well and truly awakened in this present biography.

3 di 3 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 3.0 su 5 stelle Good look but definately biased 3 ottobre 2007 Di Wandering Colorado Girl - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina flessibile Acquisto verificato I lived for a while by Nell Gwyn's house in Newmarket, Suffolk, England and so was interested in her greatly. I've read biographies of Charles II and had a perspective of his mistresses. The details of Nell's life are great; however, as a descendent of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, Mr Beauclerk's bias is obvious. His descriptions of the other mistresses are vicious at times. A great perspective of Restoration England. 3 di 4 persone hanno trovato utile la seguente recensione 5.0 su 5 stelle A Fresh Eye on the Restoration 21 gennaio 2006 Di Rochester Fan - Pubblicato su Amazon.com Formato: Copertina rigida Acquisto verificato Beauclerk is a scholar who did his homework and invests years of research in his fascinating, eye-opening biography.

He casts a fresh eye not only on Nell, but also on Charles II and Restoration London. I have studied the Restoration for decades and Beauclerk has given me a new perspective on the people and the period. He might be accused by some of "going easy" on his famous ancestors, but he gives the characters an emotional depth which brings out their humanity. Charles and Nell no longer seem like the oddest of odd couples in history, rather they seem like a curiously perfect match, odd only in that, given their disparate stations in life, they actually found each other.

Question: Nell Gwynn was mistress to which King?
Answer: King Charles II